Department of Women's Studies

An interdisciplinary study of women in society oriented toward exploring women's experiences in a variety of contexts. Topics covered include biology, sociology, psychology, politics, economics, religion, philosophy, history, literature and language, law, and culture. Course content is focused on North America and is multicultural. Satisfies social science core requirement.

An introduction to critical thinking skills about concepts such as gender, race, economic class, and sexuality, and how they intersect in lives of women of color, as well as their strategies of surviving, resisting, and overcoming barriers. Satisfies American Cultures core requirement. Satisfies American Cultures requirement.

This course introduces students to the cultural, social, political, and economic contexts in which non-Western women live. It addresses the impact of globalization, colonialization, and post-coloniality, and women's responses to these processes.

This course addresses women's health and sexuality from a feminist perspective. It also deals with body images not only from the perspective of health, but also in terms of their relationship to structures of power.

Focuses on the historical roots of feminist political thought in relation to other social movements. Examines the intellectual traditions influencing feminist theory today such as postmodernism, psychoanalysis, postcolonial theory, queer theory, and the intersectional analyses produced by women of color.

Prerequisites: Junior standing. Grade of C (2.0) or higher in WNST 100. This course is typically offered in the Fall term.

Examines feminist methodologies through hands-on research and considers the complex relationships between researchers and their subjects, the impact of social location on our field of vision, ethical issues in the research process, as well as research that facilitates social and gender justice.

This course is normally offered in the Spring term.

This course not only traces the development of feminist theories as structures of ideas, but also relates them to the historical contexts and feminist movements in which they developed.

This course explores literature by women of color in the U.S. and in transnational contexts. We will explore the ways literature represents and challenges how gender is constructed across various racial, national, economic, cultural, and political boundaries. This is a comparative course which looks at the ways in which authors make imaginative use of traditional genres and re-write themselves the social discourses written on them.

This course explores the themes and variations in women's lives in the Middle East. Particular attention will be paid to family structures, rural-urban, social class and ethnic differences, social and political movements, religion, work, and education.

Examines feminisms and women's participation in indigenous, environmental, and labor movements, Christian-based communities, peasant struggles, and new social movements concerned with race, sexuality, feminism, and human rights.

This course is an exploration of the ways in which gender, ethnicity, and class intersect to shape individual's life chances and experiences in the contemporary United States. The following areas will be emphasized: income and occupation, the justice system, social reputation and credibility, religion, education, and health. Treatment of these topics will be analytical and comparative, focusing on the experiences of African Americans, Chicano-Latino-Americans, and European-Americans. Satisfies American Cultures core requirement.

Prerequisite: SOCL 100 or WNST 100.

This course explores the relationship between sexuality and gender as well as a diversity of sexual identities. It focuses on issues of the body, sex, nature, and power within the context of history, culture, and public policy.

A survey of the political, epistemological, and metaphysical questions raised for philosophy as traditionally conceived by the claim that sex and/or gender play a significant role in self-understanding.

Within a cross-cultural and cross-societal framework, gender roles are examined in relation to a central question: why does patriarchy exist? Case studies from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania are examined in light of theories addressing the course's central question. Work, kinship, values, religion, and politics are among the topics examined.

Examines how gender is shaped by globalization through the feminization of labor and migration, environmental degradation, diaspora, sexuality, cultural displacement, and militarization. Explores the ways women have confronted these conditions as well as the possibilities and challenges of cross-border feminist coalitions.

This course combines practical experience and feminist theory through the theme of women's empowerment. Students work in selected placements while reading through a sequenced bibliography. They discuss their experiences and readings in seminars and papers.

Designed as a capstone course. Stress is on the organization and integration of knowledge gained regarding women in society.